DevOps Fusion in NOLA

I had a chance to venture down to the big easy to attend Service Management’s DevOps Fusion conference in NOLA. I was one of the speakers diving into how Service Management processes are essential for DevOps to function.

Release AND Deployment

Release and deployment are two distinct process disciplines that address fundamentally different business problems. This workshop will explore the differences, specifically how release management allows DevOps to quickly balance requests and demand into development efforts and how deployment management provides coordination to speed those developments, in a controlled manner, toward availability.

Conference Themes

One interesting thread that wove itself through the conference is an attitude, or comparing attitudes, between DevOps and ITIL.

ITIL was almost recognized as being past its prime. And DevOps is where the future is, entirely.

Some of that thinking comes from a stale and stagnant approach to implementing ITIL Service Management. Any process can become stale and lose its ability to provide value in ever-changing environments.

For many immersed in the DevOps movement they’ve had to battle to exist in their organizations. Their battle has been against the process in order to survive.

But change-averse process managers are averse to any form of change or innovation.

Embrace accelerating change.

Did you Read the BOOK?

One of the speakers was Ben Rockwood, the man in the kilt.

Yes, he wore a kilt. It is part of his branding. I should have taken a picture of him presenting in a ponytail, t-shirt, and a kilt. It is something to experience.

But as Ben spoke you could sense his wisdom, empathy, and passion.

The story that stuck out from Ben is how he asked audiences did you read the book?

He said that often he’ll ask audiences, who loves ITIL? Only a few people will raise their hands.

Then he’ll ask, who hates ITIL?
Typically the majority of hands go up.

But, here’s the real kicker. He then asks, Who’s read the ITIL books?

It is almost always the same few people who said they love ITIL.

It happens over and over. Read the ITIL books people.

Survey Said …

During my session I wanted to highlight that the ITIL books use an AND between the words Release and Deployment. There are indeed two distinct business problems being addressed; there are two processes.

So I asked the audience, based on my view of these processes which have they implemented.

Here are the results:

There are very few organizations who have implemented both Release and Deployment Management. The majority have fallen into the lull of thinking that deploying change records in a coordinated matter is enough.